* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
John Tierney lives in Durham City in the north east of England. He is a regular visitor to Los Angeles and most of his work takes as its subject matter the urban landscape of the city and the desert landscape of Joshua Tree National Park – the light in LA and the desert being of particular importance. Furthermore, the architecture of LA is, to put it mildly, seductively eclectic, taking in old and new iconic buildings and a whole range of small-scale, quirky establishments. In addition, some of his work has focused on images of New York and Helsinki, Finland.
Working in oils, the basic aim is quite straightforward: to create paintings that provide a strong sense of place, a feeling of what it is like to be there. A further dimension to this is that he visits these various locations as, in a sense, an ‘outside’ observer, one who is fascinated by the differences between them and the urban and rural landscapes of the UK. In terms of influences, John admires the work of Edward Hopper, Peter Blake and David Hockney.
